Republican Nominee Links Pregnancy From Rape and Out-of-Wedlock

GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate Tom Smith, second from right, talks to Jack Force, left, of Harpers in East Hanover Township and Rebecca Neuin of West Hanover Township Dauphin County. Photographer: Jeremy Long/AP Photo

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Republican nominee for U.S.
Senate in Pennsylvania suggested that a woman who was
impregnated by a rapist faces a similar decision to one
contemplating whether to give birth to a child out of wedlock.

Tom Smith, who opposes abortion in all circumstances and is
challenging Democratic incumbent Bob Casey, later sought to
clarify his comments. He said he didn’t intend to compare out-of-wedlock pregnancy to one resulting from rape.

His comments and the attention they attracted came just
eight days after another Republican Senate nominee, Todd Akin of
Missouri, said victims of “legitimate rape” rarely become
pregnant. Akin also opposes abortion in all circumstances.

Smith’s comments in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, were in
response to a question about how he would react if a rapist
impregnated his daughter or granddaughter, according to the
Associated Press.

“I lived something similar to that with my own family, and
she chose the life, and I commend her for that,” Smith said to
reporters at the Pennsylvania Press Club, according to the
Associated Press. “She chose the way I thought.”

He said the similarity was that the family member had “a
baby out of wedlock.”

On a follow-up question, Smith sought to clarify his
comments, saying he wasn’t comparing decisions raised by rape
and out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

’A Father’s Position’

“No, no, no, but, well, put yourself in a father’s
position,” he said, the AP reported. “Yes, I mean, it is
similar, this isn’t, but I’m back to the original. I’m pro-life
-- period.”

His communications director, Megan Piwowar, wrote in a
statement: “Tom Smith is committed to protecting the sanctity
of life and believes it begins at conception. While his answers
to some of the questions he faced at the Pennsylvania Press Club
may have been less than artful, at no time did he draw the
comparison that some have inferred. When questioned if he was
drawing that comparison, Tom’s answer was clear, ‘No, no, no.’”

Akin apologized for his Aug. 19 comments while rejecting
calls from party leaders, including presumptive Republican
presidential nominee Mitt Romney, that he drop out of the race
against Senator Claire McCaskill. She had been rated by
political analyst Charlie Cook as one of this election’s most
endangered Democratic incumbents, though polls since Akin’s
comments have shown her leading him.

Underdog Candidacy

Smith is the underdog in his race against Casey, who
opposes abortion and has called for Roe v. Wade -- the 1973
Supreme Court decision legalizing the procedure nationwide -- to
be overturned. A poll released yesterday by the Philadelphia
Inquirer shows Casey leading Smith by 19 percentage points.

Republicans gathered in Tampa, Florida, for their party’s
national convention this week say that November’s election will
turn on the economy, not on social issues. Barbara Comstock, a
member of the Virginia House of Delegates, said at a Bloomberg
Insider magazine breakfast yesterday that the top three issues
are all the same -- “economy and jobs.”